1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a textured proteinaceous food which gives the consumer a novel and unique sensation of eating that cannot be obtained from any natural form of meat. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a textured proteinaceous food which has a novel and unique texture, the novel food being obtained in such a manner that meat of domestic or marine animals (i.e., fish or shellfish), or minced meat of such animals, is heated so as to gel, and the meat material in a gel state is extruded under pressure from a die having a plurality of orifices. The present invention is also concerned with a textured proteinaceous food which is provided with a unique cross-sectional pattern by extruding a raw material in a gel state from a die having orifices with a special configuration.
2. Description of the Related Art
Efforts have heretofore been made to texture a proteinaceous processed food in order to provide it with the capacity to give a specific sensation of eating. For example, one type of proteinaceous processed food has already been disclosed which is prepared in such a manner that a minced material, e.g., minced fish meat, is molded and heated so as to gel and then finely cut in the shape of fibers or flat pieces, and the finely cut material is then molded into a predetermined shape and heated to obtain a final product which gives the consumer the sensation of eating a crab, a lobster or the eye of a scallop (see the specification of Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 14552/1979).
A method of producing a food with fibrous texture similar to muscular fibers has also already been disclosed wherein salt is added to meat of a domestic or marine animal and kneaded to prepare a meat paste, which is then discharged into an aqueous protein denaturing solution from a nozzle having narrow orifices so that the material is spun, and single fibers thus obtained are gathered and heated to bind them together in the shape of a mass of meat having a fibrous texture (see the specification of Japanese Patent Public Disclosure No. 1903/1983).
Further, the copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 872,497 now U.S. Pat. No. 4,685,877 discloses an extruding apparatus which may be used to prepare the product according to the present invention. However, this application discloses no process for producing a target product by a method employing a die such as that used in the present invention.
Conventional methods of producing processed foods generally aim at texuring a raw proteinaceous material so that a final product gives the sensation of eating a natural form of food, e.g., the leg meat of a crab, a lobster or the eye of a scallop. In contrast to this, the present invention aims at readily and inexpensively providing a proteinaceous processed food which gives the consumer a novel and unique sensation of eating that cannot be obtained from any natural form of meat food or which has a unique external appearance.